KANSAS CITY, Kan. – As New England went in search of a critical victory prior to a 4-1 defeat at Kansas City on Saturday night, Revolution boss Steve Nicol opted to switch up his side's usual approach.
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Instead of choosing to deploy his starting XI in the Revolution's customary 4-4-2 system, Nicol decided to arrange his players in a 3-5-2 formation to compensate for the peculiar challenges presented by playing at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.
“This field makes it easier to play three at the back,” New England boss Steve Nicol told MLSsoccer.com after the match. “There's no space. There's a lot of fighting balls, so we wanted two guys up top and we wanted Marko [Perovic, Revolution midfielder] to get onto the second balls and try and get some strikes at goal.
“You can't really open up and start passing; it's too tight and it's too easy to close the ball down. So that's why [we changed formation].”
New England failed to adjust to the switch and shipped two early goals en route to the heavy defeat. But Revolution captain Shalrie Joseph said his teammates should have adjusted more readily to a formation used previously during the campaign.
“We played [a 3-5-2] earlier on in the season and mentally, we should be ready to play any system,” Joseph told MLSsoccer.com after the match. “We're professionals. If Stevie said we should play a 1-5-8 or whatever system, we should be ready to play.
“[Saturday] for some reason, we come out with our heads between our legs and we just didn't perform. It just wasn't good enough,” added Joseph.
Kansas City's high-pressure, attacking style allowed their three forwards to give the Revolution back three fits for most of the evening. With only scant defensive support offered by New England’s wide players, the Revolution struggled to cover the natural spaces conceded by a three-man defense – particularly in the corners – and watched as the Wizards used their movement to create opportunities time and again.
“They played three up top, so it was hard for our back three to stay man-to-man,” Joseph said. “We didn't give them much help through the midfield. We just have look at ourselves in the mirror and come back next week and get points.”
In order to obtain all three points in a must-win home game against Philadelphia on Saturday, New England must improve their concentration and execution, according to Revolution defender Cory Gibbs.
“Stevie said we had to go out there with a focused mentality on what we have to do,” Gibbs said. “Obviously, we didn't do that for a full 90 minutes. That's the most disappointing thing. We just didn't execute at all. As important as this game was, [we weren’t] up to our fullest potential.”
